Day 58: Skillington to New Baulderton

As we left the pub after dinner, the village was bathed in mist and although it looked pretty it did not bode well for the walk

and, true to our fears the day started out wet! However we were soon removing our rain gear and breaks appeared in the clouds then the sun appears. Yippee. We were quite taken with these mushrooms growing out of a hay bales 

but whilst our focus was on them on the left hand side of the road; our turn-off to our path was on the right hand side. Oh dear, half a km along the road we realised our mistake, nothing for it but to go back. Not a great distance but as today's walk was scheduled to be 35 Km an extra km was not that welcome . We were soon pounding our way along the Viking Way which led us through a gliding school built on the site of an old WW2 airfield.

Then, as the clouds cleared to let the blue sky show through, we were off into the countryside.

We spent today in Lincolnshire except as we were near the Leicestershire/Lincolnshire border, at one stage as we crossed a road the sign on one side of us said Welcome to Leisestershire, and one on the other side said Welcome to Lincolnshire ... so we weren't really sure where we were. The country, if not exactly hilly, is certainly more undulating now that we have left the Fens behind.

The trail lead us alongside the Grantham canal which was very pleasant and as is the case with canal walking we were able to locate a convenient pub for lunch.

Walking through a wood after we left the canal we were intrigued by these yellow doors which lead nowhere ... Very strange!

We continued along the Viking Way 

and crossed one of the very country railway crossings with enough room for a tractor or pedestrians and you just press the button when you want to cross.

Then when we reached Long Bennington we did some road walking till we reached a disused railway that had been converted to a walking/cycling track

and followed that all the way to New Balderton where we could rest for the night.